Adventures in Formenos
by Rogercat
Summary: The everyday life in Formenos for the House of Feanor, with all the chaos and joys a large family can have Side-story with scenes not seen in the original Warg Rider AU stories
1. Chapter 1

**Hands off my son!**

 _Year 25 of the Fourth Age in Valinor._

It was still early morning in Formenos, yet most people living in the city had already gotten up and were finishing to get away for their work. The same in the big villa belonging to the House of Fëanor.

"Rûsa? Are you awake?" called Maedhros from the other side of a closed door. Inside the chamber, a young elfling no older than perhaps fifteen years old, awoke at the sound of her voice and tried to roll out of the nest of blankets and pillows in his bed.

"Almost…," her son answered, still somewhat half-asleep, while rubbing the sleep away from his eyes with a hand. Yawning big, Rûsa tried to not roll down on the floor as he tried to free himself from the blankets.

"Master Rumil will arrive for the first school lesson in a hour, try and be ready then."

Hearing his mother walk down the stairs to the floor below, Rûsa went to wash his face so he woke up properly. Making a face at seeing the mess his thick hair was as every other morning, he chose to quickly wash then dressed in his everyday clothes before trying to brush out his hair so it looked nice. Just because he had far better health nowadays in his second life than what he ever had in Angband, it still did not mean that Rûsa refused to keep check after anything that could reveal his true past as a former slave in Angband. As such, he had a habit of looking over his face, neck, and arms for possible scars from whips every morning.

"Good… nothing like a permanently bruise around my throat caused by a slave collar or something… and the only minor injuries I have currently is from when I somehow got some of the forge working toys on me while we cleaned out the forges…"

Making a face because of the sharp pain at touching the still very sore bruise just between his throat and collarbone, Rûsa took out some healing salve he had gotten from Curufin's healer wife Astarë and carefully applied it on the bruise to help speed up the healing.

As Rûsa came down for breakfast, still trying to get the hair brush free from his hair as it had gotten stuck because his hair simply was so thick, he saw his mother frown at a dress she held up in her hands. It was a pleasant cream colour which did not seem too odd against her copper-red hair, but it was far too low-cut over the cleavage for her taste along with a terribly revealing side cleavage as well. And the skirt had a knee-high slit which would reveal her long legs as she walked. Rûsa started with wide eyes on the dress, he may have been used to see nude slaves in Angband because they had nothing else than worn-out rags to dress themselves into, but the mere idea of his own mother being dressed like that…

"Ammë, if you ever wear that dress among people and the moral guardians see it I will hear no end of the stupid rumours that you are promiscuous."

Maedhros gave him an annoyed look at his words.

"As if I even plans to try it on!" she said. "Whoever it was that sent it has no knowledge about what size I need on my clothes: it is far too small for me! And there is no way I would wear a such revealing thing like this; as a princess of the Nolder, I need to think of how I dress! And I am not exactly following fashion from Tirion anymore nowadays… I do not longer enjoy being dressed up as I once were…"

Her son shuddered, understanding that the events in Angband and the deep scarring of her first body had forever torn away the former joy, even if vain, of being the prettiest lady on a festival or ball dance.

"If it is meant as a joke, it is not very funny. If it is meant as a confirmation on all the idiotic rumours about my behaviour because I am not married to your father for very private reasons… ugh!"

With a angry snarl, Maedhros tore apart the offensive dress in two pieces with her bare hands and tossed the pieces into the kitchen fireplace where the tea water currently was boilding in the kettle. She was still doing weapon training out of habit from the First Age and as such, was one of the strongest female warriors in Formenos. A deadly beauty, as some of her former soldiers called her now when she was reborn.

"Good morning. Have our parents already left?" greeted Caranthir from the stairs in a unusual cheerful voice, which normally meant that he must have been having a nice dream about his marriage to Haleth.

"Morning, little brother. Hope you had a better morning than I do."

As Maedhros told her third brother about the horrible dress she had been sent by a unknown person and Caranthir's face became flushed in barely hidden anger on her behalf over the insult, Rûsa took to eat his breakfast so he would be finished in time. Today he and master Rumil had planned to spend the day on the market since Rûsa could not stand sitting for several hours in the class room.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Rumil was easy to spot in his teal-coloured which robe he always wore as a sign of his rank as a lore master, and he smiled at seeing his young student running towards him at the place they had agreed to meet. He had looked forwards another day with Rûsa since the young son of Maedhros was an unusual challenge as a student, for even if Rumil had learnt the truth about him and knew that Rûsa had spent pretty much all his first life as a slave in Angband, it did not mean that it was easy to teach him. Rûsa had a sharp mind, but he also had a minor learning disability which could prove quite disastrous if it was revealed.

"Good morning, master Rumil! Guess what happened just before breakfast today…"

"Speak slowly or you will only end up babbling nonsense," Rumil smiled in respone. As his student told him about the horrible dress Maedhros had gotten, the lore master took care to help Rûsa pinning his dark red braid into a braided bun with a few hairpins. It was rather hot for being only early summer and many adults worried about that the children would be affected by the sudden heat. As such, all the inn and café staff around Formenos had been requested to be ready with cold drinks just in case it was needed.

"Can we be around the water fountains because of this heat?"

"Of course, pretty stupid to run around during this warm day and risk getting a heat stroke."

Grinning, Rûsa took it as permission to hurry towards the biggest water fountain in Formenos, which was big and shallow enough to become a small swimming pool for Elflings during warm days like this. Rumil calmly walked close behind, picking up a book from his bag where he tended to write up small notes about how Rûsa behaved around others since it could be helpful to give more insight about his character and personality.

Some other Elflings, most of them Noldor and a couple of half-Avari like Rûsa, were already in the somewhat cool water. Being dressed in simple summer dresses and tunics that could take a lot of wild water plays, no one could claim that it was improper for them to play together.

"Hi, Rûsa! Get into the water, it is wonderfully cool!" one of them called with a hand wave above his head.

"Hi, everyone! Give some room for me over there!" warned Rûsa before jumping high into the air and landed into the water, laughing in joy as he surfaced again. He had grown braver around larger bodies of water during the fourteen years since his rebirth and quickly had grown to truly enjoy the feeling of being actually clean. Such a difference to Angband where really clean water was rare and only the outside-born slaves had ever known what a bath meant. Slaves born in Angband, like Rûsa himself, only used water to clean wounds and for drinking, never for bathing.

"Don't give yourself a self-caused concussion, kid," Rumil said while having his eyes focused on his young student and writing in his book with a quill with his other hand since he was used to taking notes without looking. "Your mother is still crossed with your blond uncle for not watching you better at the horse race you two did last time he watched you."

"I only fell off my galloping pony because I was too busy in looking backwards over my shoulder on my uncle, I did not hear his warning about that low-hanging tree branch in time," Rûsa muttered for himself as he pushed away his wet hair from his face to see better. In return, Rumil raised a eyebrow in silence as a waitness from a café beside the fountain offered him a free glass of unsweetened lemon-water with some ice cubs to keep it cool.

"May I sit down here?" asked a new, rather deep-sounding female voice and the Elflings turned around to see an extremely rare figure here in Valinor:

A Dwarrowdam, looking even more exotic since she was dark-skinned with surprising white-blonde hair and beard along with stricking green eyes. Dressed in a green dress with some Dwarven patterns stitched in an light-blue thread and sandals, she also wore a transparent face veil of the same color.

"Good morning, young ones," she said politely.

"Morning, miss Narvi!" they greeted, swimming closer to the edge on the fountain where she had sat down. Since her arrival to Formenos with Aulë last summer, Narvi had insisted on staying with Celebrimbor since they actually were a married couple even without a offical ceremony and wanted to live together as a married couple should do. Or, according to the sounds that sometimes could be heard from Celebrimbor's forge at times, had a lot of "catching up" together since her death in the Second Age.

"Where is my cousin? I thought you two were going to shop together?" Rûsa wondered in confusion. He had gotten used to the fact of his older cousin having Narvi as a wife, even if it still felt odd to see them together at times.

"Narvi, the seamstress have your new clothes ready!" Celebrimbor called from a building a bit away. Smiling, Narvi excused herself so she could get the new clothes she had needed. Although Rûsa could have sworn on that he did hear Narvi mutter for herself:

"Reborn in a new body, and they still could not make Celebrimbor look less like a boy with that youngful face and instead give him a nice beard or something…?"

~X~X~X~X~X~X

After some more minutes Rûsa climbed out of the fountain.

"I am only going to borrow a towel to dry off myself with from the wash house, I will be back," he said while trying to squeeze out as much water he could get out from the knee-length tunic he was wearing.

"Do that, I will wait here," Rumil nodded, planning to buy a iced drink for Rûsa during that wait and then take them on a small walk to watch the different stands on the market. He had seen some more easier-to-read school books for sale that would suit Rûsa better than the complex ones he currently had such trouble reading and it would also spare Rumil the extra work in having to write down a easier version of the school texts late in the evenings. Not that he minded the work, but sometimes it could end up being very late into the night when he finished.

Living in Formenos for the past fourteen years had Rûsa learn where to go if he needed something, and this day it was no surprise that many borrowed a towel to dry themselves off after a quick bath to cool off a bit.

"I think I saw one here… yes, this one is small enough to be my size…"

Freeing his hair from the braid, Rûsa tried at dry off his hair as much as possible so it would not be too wet during the rest of the day. He was also looking forwards the market and did not want anything to spoil this fine day. Once his hair felt dry enough, he picked up a comb from his pocket and started to fix some minor tangles he had gotten. Suddenly getting a bad feeling akin to how he would sense danger just before seeing Sauron in Angband, Rûsa quickly turned around.

But he was not fast enough because in the next moment two different pairs of hands were grabbing hold of him, one hand covering his mouth to prevent him from screaming for help.

" _We better hurry out of the city with him before they notice!_ "

The voice of a male Elf? Rûsa thought. It sounded like a voice he may had heard in the royal court of Tirion three years earlier.

"How can the Valar allow that kind of sinful woman to be reborn, let alone having a child without even having a husband in sight!" another voice muttered. "No, this child is far safer in a proper foster family of good social standing who can correct his behavior instead of acting like a savage…"

Now Rûsa remembered: the voices belonged to a married Noldor-Vanyarin couple among the more strict moral guardians in the Noldorin royal court, those people who claimed that his ammë was immoral and who had no right to be a mother because of her past as a a Kinslayer in the First Age. Realizing that they actually planned to kidnap him and take him away from his family, all because of Maedhros "maternal unsuitability", Rûsa began to panic. Memories of Angband took over his mind for a moment and he acted out of instinct by biting down on his hand covering his mouth as hard as he could.

" _ **OW!**_ " the husband yelled in pain, jerking away his bloody hand. Using the surprise it bought him, Rûsa gave the wife a hard knock on the jaw by throwing his head back, forcing her to release him.

"I will teach you to give my wife the proper respect, you horrible little… hey! Get back here!"

But Rûsa's old surviving instincts from Angband had awakened in his panic, and the more childish instincts of his new body also told him to find his mother for protection against this new danger.

" **AMMË! AMMË! UNCLES! HARU! GRANDMOTHER!** "

The panic-filled shouting which came from her son, made Maedhros freeze in the middle of a training movement with her sword, stopping only a few centimeters from the wooden dummy. She tried to train as much as her duties as Fëanor's heir and motherhood could allow, for she did not want to lose her battle skills now when she was reborn in peaceful Valinor. It also gave her a sense of doing something that would be extra needed one day.

"What on…" started one of the shocked guards who was training with her, but another one said:

"It came from the central fountain!"

No one was surprised at hearing Maedhros suddenly letting out a stream of foul curse words and hurrying away from the training grounds to find her son while still holding the sword in her left hand. Everyone hoped that nothing had gone wrong and that it simply was a case of a spider getting a little too close to his face for poor Rûsa's comfort given how terrified her was of spiders.

"Let's come along if the princess needs help."

"Aye!"

And naturally the shouting from their youngest family member seemed to have drawn the attention from his many uncles and grandparents as well, seeing that they all came running from whatever it was that they had been doing at hearing him scream in such panic.

Rumil had also heard the screams from Rûsa and seeing a unfamiliar couple trying to get hold of his student who clearly was in panic mood; and took hold of the first thing he got his hands on. As a result, his book went flying straight in the face of the husband, knocking him out by a mixture of good aim and bad luck.

"Let go of my student!" Rumil yelled, charging toward them. He was quickly joined by Narvi, who used her smaller height and noticeablely bigger body weight to literally knock the female elf off her feet.

"Hands off my cousin… uff!"

Celebrimbor got interrupted by Rûsa, who had spotted the closest relative he could find at the moment, and as such threw himself on his older cousin and clung around his torso with both arms and legs for dear life. Celebrimbor stumbled back a few steps, but managed to keep his balance without tripping over.

" **What is going on here!?** "

Maedhros arrived, stopping to take in the scene: her son clinging like mad to Celebrimbor with his tunic wet as if he had been cooling off in the fountain earlier; Narvi sitting on a protesting, and rather squashed, She-elf on the ground; and Rumil checking on the unconscious husband. Hearing Maedhros' voice as she came nearer Rûsa began to babble wildly, telling her what he had heard them saying.

"A Kinslayer with blood on your hands like yourself have no right to be allowed to be a parent! A Fëanorian offspring like that boy should not even be around a such immorally tainted mother!"

Maedhros grey eyes grew ice-cold as she heard the She-elf accuse her. As if this woman, who had remained back in Valinor and thus never seen the true horrors of Middle-Earth, could have any right say that she was a bad mother.

"Excuse me?" the copper-haired Fëanorian princess asked in a icy voice as she turned around, which her family and her former soldiers knew too well. Being told that her son nearly had been kidnapped in the very heart of Formenos was not a good promise for how she would react on this.

"Narvi, would you mind remaining seated on that lady for a while?" asked Celebrimbor as he tried to push a still-terrified Rûsa off. "I think you are doing a better job at keeping her down for my aunt still than what the guards would do at the moment." Unfortunately the younger cousin had a rather tight iron hold on him, caused by his earlier panic attack, so it was a little bit tricky for him to let go at the moment. By now, the guards also had managed to awake the husband, now spotting a bloody nose from the book thrown at his face, and held him in a tight grip to prevent him from escaping.

"Oh yes, this pillow just happens to move around and be rather noisy for being a pillow to sit on," Narvi answered as she shifted her weight around, her comment causing Maedhros to smile a thin smile. Sending Celebrimbor and Rumil away to another café a bit away to get some soothing camomile tea for Rûsa, Maedhros' aura suddenly changed the moment her son was out of earshot. Those who once had served under her in the First Age knew that her maternal instinct to protect her child had awoken the fearful warrior-side of her personality and that meant danger for anyone who was the target.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

"Feeling better now, Rûsa?"

Celebrimbor got a faint nod in answer. He had managed to make Rûsa sit down in his lap instead of clinging to him. No doubt that his younger cousin was in slight shock from someone trying to kidnap and place him in a foster family.

"Here is the tea," said Rumil as he came carrying a cup with chamomile tea. Beneath his calm veneer the old lore master was burning in fury. He had seen many signs on how emotionally vulnerable Rûsa was thanks to his past life as a slave, and as his mother Maedhros was a pillar of emotionally support for him. To lose her and the rest of his family, especially if he suddenly was taken away from them, would not be good—he'd collapse in shock.

A loud shout of pain was heard in the air.

"Sounds like aunt Maedhros brought out the old discipline among her soldiers to make that couple confess to why they tried to take you. Given how Narvi sits on the wife, I think she may be doing a couple of not-so-light smacks on their feet. People who are not used to that kind of punishment tends to break down pretty quickly."

"Mm-m…" Rûsa could not give a proper answer as he currently was focusing on trying to drink the tea without his hands shaking too much from the shock. He was not too scared of whatever it was that Maedhros was doing as punishment on the couple for trying to kidnap him, he knew that it would be pretty harmless by the standards in Angband.

"I am not in the right mood for visiting the market anymore…" Rûsa admitted with a certain sense of guilt in his voice, not that it surprised either Celebrimbor or Rumil given what just had been close to happening.

"Maybe it can be a school lesson back at our home today, Narvi mentioned something about showing some more dances from her home in the Orocarni."

Rûsa made a faint smile at hearing that, he loved when Narvi revealed the cultural differences between Valinor and her first life in Middle-Earth. She was especially fond of showing the eastern Dwarven culture from the Orocarni, where she once had been born in the year 750 of the Second Age.

"Speaking about which, look who is coming."

"Hi there, guys, heard you mention my name. Maedhros is currently letting that couple enjoying the nice heat by leaving Formenos in their birthday suits so everyone can see them."

Celebrimbor could not hold back a laugh; that was precise something he could imagine Maedhros doing as a punishment, a very public humiliation.

"Well, shall we go to your house then? I would be most pleased to learn more about how different the Stone Children of Aulë is from us Eldar," suggested Rumil with a smile. Finishing his tea, Rûsa was ready to go too.

When Maedhros returned a few hours later after handing over the Noldorin-Vanyarin couple to the city guards and sent away a very furious letter about the attempted kidnapping to her grandfather Finwë in Tirion, she become a little more happy at seeing her son taking a nap with Celebrimbor and Narvi in their hammock under a tree, the Dwarrowdam still dressed in a dancing dress from the dance showing earlier. A letter from Rumil told her that he had left to seek shelter from the sun somewhere else as it was a private garden after all.

"Let's go home for today for today, sweetie. Hopefully this event will learn people to not try and take you away from me like that again."

Carefully, Maedhros managed to take up Rûsa in her arms without waking him up and carried him home after using Rumil's letter to tell her sleeping nephew where her son was when he and Narvi would wake up.


	2. Chapter 2

**The differences in how to spell**

Celebrimbor knew that something had gone wrong on the lesson in writing Tengwar, from the way Rûsa stormed out from the house under a almost literal hail storm of swear words that must have its origins in Angband.

" _Curufinwë Atarinkë! What did you do to make your nephew trying to_ _ **geld**_ _you?!_ "

From the shocked, and not so little angry voice of Nerdanel somewhere in the house, she had heard it as well and found her third-youngest son in a likely less than graceful position.

"I knew that Atar was not a good choice for being a replacement teacher, when he is so much of a perfectionist in how to spell words right…he really is well-named after Haru Fëanor there…." Celebrimbor thought in private as he put back his book on the stone bench, using the Quenya words for father and grandfather as he always had done in his life, even after switching to Sindarin in Middle-Earth so long ago.

Master Rúmil of Tirion, who once again had taken up his old position as teacher to the House of Fëanor to its currently youngest and secret family member that only the Elves in Formenos knew about, had needed to travel back to Tirion for some weeks because of some important meetings with his fellow scholars and loremasters at the Royal Academy. Neither Fëanor himself or any of his reborn children had came along, they knew that their mere presence in Tirion would cause a lot of unease because of all the history with the Oath and Kinslayings.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Having a reasonable guess where his younger cousin had hidden himself, Celebrimbor went upwards to the house roof by using the marble staircase his grandfather once had done so long ago in the Years of the Trees while living in Exile there. Now, however, it was more or less a permanent house for Fëanor and his family since none of them wanted to return to Tirion, even if nearly all the children had moved out after their rebirth. Only Maedhros and Rûsa lived there now with her parents, as Maedhros could need help in caring for her unusual son at times even if Rûsa had improved in both behavior and personality over the years since he was reborn.

"Did my father earn another taste of how well you can headbutt, even in this tiny body?"

"I used the fruit bowl as a way to remind him that I am used to improvise with different things like weapons. Rather useful helmet for a headbutt as well, if you throw out the fruit on the table first," was all Rûsa explained without looking away from where he had his eyes focused on the distance. There was still a anger in his voice, visible in all the small body by the way he was tensed up. Celebrimbor sat down with crossed legs beside his cousin.

"I tried to tell father that uncle Maglor was a better choice now when Rúmil is away, because he can at least use his songs to show how the difference between how a word is spoken or written, but no, he refused to listen. Insisted on that since he is the only sibling with a child of his own, he could do it. I think he forgot that Haru Fëanor often had to correct Atar's own grammar errors back in his youth, because Atar really wanted to make Haru proud of him. I think Atar forgot that Maglor raised two Peredhil foster sons with the help of your mother."

Rûsa snorted. Maglor was not afraid of revealing various events in which Elrond and Elros had not been the best of students in the classroom, telling his nephew that there was no such thing as perfect. Children learned differently, that was the secret to make things well.

"Uncle Curufin is the only one to claim that I need to write the right grammar, when both master Rúmil and even Haru is in agreement that my issues lays with trouble in finding the link between how the letters look and how they sound!"

Celebrimbor sighed again, Rûsa had suffered from analfabetism while living as a slave in Angband and here in Valinor, it was a great handicap in social life if someone did not know how to read or write. As a member of the Noldor royal family, it was even more important that Rûsa had such a basic education.

"I will tell you this. Your current handwriting is a lot more legible than what Haru himself wrote when he first created the Tengwar. If there is any grammar errors to be read, it is in that first version before he refined it."

"Really?" Rûsa asked in an understandable skepticism.

"Narvi and I have the original notes with early Tengwar in our house, we borrowed them from Haru to see how the grammar had changed over the centuries even if the spelling is the same. And she have brought some cookies from her sister Loki this time that I think she would like to share in exchange for a nice drawing for us to have over the fireplace," Celebrimbor offered with a smile. He knew that Rûsa had signs of a great artist even from the most simple drawings Rûsa first had tried to make with crayons as a toddler.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

After some nice tea and cookies with Narvi before she went back to her work as a stonemason, Celebrimbor showed Rûsa the old notes with early Tengwar.

"If you ever gets a sibling, Cel, I hope that it will be girl. Ammë is tired of being the only female Fëanorian born _into_ the family and would like some nieces rather than more nephews in our generation, she have said a couple of times," Rûsa said after feeling how his head started to spin from the unreadable alphabet in front of him. He knew that Fëanor was a genius, but even geniuses had to start from scratch somewhere.

"Well, then she secretly agrees with me and Narvi about that gender we would like to have on a child between us. We may not ever get a child because we did try for that even back in the Second Age without any effort resulting in a pregnancy for as long as Narvi still held promise of being fertile before she entered old age, and Dwarven pregnancies are rare enough as they are. But yes, some more female Fëanorians born into the family tree would be nice."

Looking around, Rûsa noticed something on some parchments where Narvi had written some messengers in Runes. Namely that with his difficulties to read, his mind read her name as Ngarvi or Ñarvi, depending on where she had written her name. He showed it on a free parchment for Celebrimbor, who did not seem too surprised over the two different spellings.

"I think that shows how you may have caught up on the Dwarven Runes you attempted to read last time we visited her side of the family, and mentally tries to translate it into Tengwar because you are more used to that written script. And I have heard Elves in different dialects say her name with different emphasis on certain letters in her name," he explained so Rûsa would not feel bad over it.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Naturally, Rûsa did not escape some punishment for his action against Curufin and for once again using the awful language of Angband the whole family tried to make him stop using, but Maedhros only found it a fitting way to remind him that just because Celebrimbor had been a easy student whatever Curufin had wanted to teach him, Rûsa was a very different challenge.

Curufin ended up walking in pretty funny manner for days after being hit in a such tender spot on his body, avoiding the classroom where Maglor now had taken over the lessons with their nephew.


	3. Chapter 3

Year 14 of the Fourth Age, Formenos:

"Uncle?"

Celegorm looked up from where he just had been busy with making minced meat in a separate shelter for his freshly killed game.

"Yes, Rûsa?"

"Can I watch you cooking the lunch later?" the red-haired toddler asked, his black eyes focused on the meat knife his uncle held in one hand.

"Only if you tries not to steal anything. Remember, we are a big family when it is family gathering and the food need to be enough.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Now, two years after his rebirth, the Fëanorian siblings and their parents had a very good guess of his behavior. Rûsa was curious about thing they found normal in everyday life, yes, but that was a result of his earlier life in Angband. Once he had understood that he would not face any harsh punishments for simple mistakes, he still had been smart enough to not test any limits.

"I will first season the meat with spices, by rubbing the species into the meat with my hands like this, for more taste later. Then, I start with this amount of water, then add those chopped vegetables and herbs which are commonly found in the woods. By boiling the meat and the vegetables together in one big pot, all the food parts will be done at the same time and there will be less for washing the dishes later, as well."

Rûsa watched as Celegorm worked at the stove. His second uncle knew a surprising many details about food and cooking related to living outdoor, for as a hunter it was important to know cooking, even if it so was only how to roast a small game over a open fire, because otherwise the only alternatives was either to food poison yourself or starving.

"Those who are spoiled by having a lot of servants and getting the food served at the table without doing any of the work themselves, are the ones most likely to give themselves food poisoning or even flat out ruin the meal because they have no idea to actually do the step for step in cooking."

Based on the way he went pale for a moment, Celegorm guessed that Rûsa must have done a few such mistakes in the past. Then again, as a slave he would have been dependent on whatever food he was allowed to eat.

" I prefer the food here. It tastes far better and the only times I have gotten sick from it, is when we tried to make my stomach used to the new food."

It had been a real struggle, that one, to try and find something which poor Rûsa would not throw up later when his stomach had protested. Sometimes he only had taken one tiny taste piece, before he had turned green in the face as warning. Everyone had been so worried about that he could not eat enough to start adding weight because his reborn body as a toddler had still shown evidence of the life-long malnutrition he had suffered as a slave. He had been even smaller than a normal toddler of a such age!

"Everyone who is reborn in a new body is a bit sensitive about food the first few weeks, yes. I longed for some nice meat when all I could keep down was some porridge, soup and bread," Celegorm spoke after tasting a little to see if he needed to add something to enrich the favour.

" _No gruel_ , or you will be really sorry for serving it. I hate it, there is nothing you grow to dislike more than what we was served at almost every meal."

Unfortunately for Rûsa, his attempt of a scowl with his current small face look more cute than dangerous, though the death glare was pretty good.

"Explains why you ended up spitting it out in the face of your grandfather, then, the first time we tried it and you realized what it was for taste."

Fëanor, thankfully, had been more shocked than angry over getting the food on himself in that manner. Then again, he had some experience of such situations when food-refusing toddlers was involved at the kitchen table, with seven children of his own and a grandson before things had gone south in the past. Nerdanel had been too busy trying to hide her laugher at the sight to be angry at Rûsa, because it reminded of old times.

"Alright, you can run and tell the others that the food is soon ready. Give the Ambarussa and Curvo the task of setting the table."

With a mission to do, Rûsa hurried out of the kitchen with Huan following after him to ensure that no chaos would happen before all the Elves was inside for lunch.


	4. Chapter 4

It was a normal, peaceful morning just before dawn. Fëanor moved closer to Nerdanel in sleep. Perhaps he would have remained a sleep, if not for that he felt a odd smell from somewhere.

"...are the city guards lightening torches close to our house this early?"

Well, the window was open to let in some of the colder night air, since it was summer and very warm during the day time.

"Honey, are you burning something?" Nerdanel mumbled in her sleep. He was about to response, when the smell became stronger. Namely, from the downstairs.

" _ **The kitchen?!**_ "

Fëanor threw himself up from the bed in alarm at spotting some black smoke from the window, suddenly recalling that the kitchen area was not far from the window below their bedroom. Nerdanel was awakened by his loud voice, but at seeing the smoke as well she followed after him down the stairs.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

The whole kitchen was filled with black smoke which came from the oven, despite all the open windows. A coughing somewhere, and a small shape was indeed moving close to the where the oven door was half opened.

"Get away from the oven, Rûsa!" Nerdanel cried in worry, Fëanor tossing their grandson to her to catch in her arms before grabbing a bucket of water standing in the kitchen just for this kind of situation and threw the water into the oven ro put the fire out.

" _ **You are RUINING it!**_ " Rûsa protested in dismay as a sizzling sound was heard at the water hitting something, his words ignored as his grandfather kicked open the kitchen door to the garden to let in more air and get the smoke out.

"You are not allowed in the kitchen alone, and especially not with a fire! What if you burns yourself?! Nerdanel scolded in response, earning a sour glare from him. Now Maedhros arrived as well, having noticed that her son was not sleeping in his own bed and naturally had panicked at the smell of smoke.

"Well, this...was unexpected," Fëanor commented after lightening a lamp and a small mess was revealed at the kitchen counter, where they saw opened small bags of flour, sugar and dropped eggs on the floor. And the reason for the smoke was revealed as a batch of small bread, completely burnt black.

"I wanted to help making breakfast buns and surprise you…" Rûsa admitted, making a worried face as his grandfather pulled on a oven mitt to pick up one bun, looked at it with a suspicious look and naturally found it impossible to eat when he tried to bite into it.

"The thought was nice but this is basically coal," was all Fëanor said, dropping the bun on the table where a rather heavy sound was heard at the landing.

Rûsa was too upset over the baking failure to protest as he normally would have done.

~X~X~X~X~X~X

Later the same day, when Caranthir had been tasked with some babysitting for a few hours:

"Baking bread? Yes, there is very simple kinds of bread which can be baked at once, but others need some more work on. I take it that you never was involved in the food chain in the past?" Caranthir said when his younger nephew told of why there still was a faint smell of smoke in the kitchen.

"No…."

Seeing how Rûsa really seemed depressed over what had happened that morning, Caranthir hoped to cheer him up by showing how to make a bread.

"On the second shelf above the floor in the food storage, there is a closed glass jar I want you to get. The lock is a red one."

Caranthir knew that jae well enough. It was not the original jars from his childhood so long ago, but Nerdanel had kept the marking as a sign of which content inside so it would not be mistaken for something else. He had picked out the rest of the dry ingredients when Rûsa came back with the jar.

"What is it inside? It does not look very tasty," the Elfling said at a closer look.

"It is fermented dough from a earlier baking, you spare one piece each time and that is a secret part to a successful bread. It is the yeast inside that will help the bread raise. Wild yeast, as it is called, is made from mixing water and flour and letting it stand for some time."

Showing Rûsa how it was done, Caranthir mixed the earlier dough into flour, salt and water. Once it had formed into a smooth, slightly sticky dough on the floured surface where he had kneaded it with his hands, he put it under a towel over a bowl to rise in the room temperature until it had doubled in size.

"It needs to raise like that again after that we have formed it into a loaf, or it will end up as a very flat bread."

They used the time to light a fire in the oven for baking the bread later. Tasking Rûsa with making a baking tray greased with butter, Caranthir formed the dough into a bread loaf which he then placed on the tray.

"Shall it be covered again now? You said twice, after all."

"Exactly."

Once the bread loaf had raised somewhat more, Caranthir placed the tray into the oven so it could be baked. Waiting was not the most fun part, but it was important to keep eye on the bread so it was not burned.

"So I was too fast in placing the buns into the oven?" Rûsa asked while his uncle placed a piece of the dough to become a new fermented dough for another baking eventually.

"Possibly too high heat as well. Small buns and smaller breads are sensitive for heat because of their size. It is a common beginner mistake. Curufin is not someone you want to leave the bread-baking to, he treats the oven like a forge at times, as high heat as possible and Maglor was the sibling most likely to end up with burnt food because his mind could suddenly become caught up in new lyrics for songs."

That habit had been forced out of both the brothers when they were in Middle-Earth and they needed to focus on what they was doing with their hands. The alternative had been to go to sleep without food, something which could trigger up bad memories for Maedhros who had not gotten much food while she was chained to the mountain cliff. Rûsa was used to starving in his first life, but he hated the feeling of how little body energy he had as a result from it.

"Look at that, this might be a bread you can try to make yourself when you are a little older. The fire can still burn you too easy currently," Caranthir smiled at taking the bread out from the oven and it was perfect in golden-brown colour and size.

There was no mistake in how happy Rûsa was at the thought, now when he had learned what mistakes he had been doing that morning. Now he and Caranthir could surprise his mother and grandparents with this bread for the dinner.


End file.
